Heretofore, snap fasteners were usually made of metal but it has now been recognized that when such fasteners are made of a plastic they have certain advantages as compared to metal snap fasteners in respect to economy and ease of manufacture, enhanced appearance, adaptability to be colored as desired for any application, and ease of securing to a supporting member.
It is the general object of the invention to provide such a plastic snap fastener possessing the aforesaid advantages while at the same time to provide an improvement over the snap fastener of the type as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,083,429, 3,243,858 and 3,270,385. Each of these patents shows a strip of snap fastener components of the stud and socket type; and, in the latter two patents, the components are dielectrically heat sealed to a supporting member whereas the components in the former patent are secured to supporting member by a high frequency heat sealing method.
Another object of the invention is to provide a plastic snap fastener in which the separable elements are effectively aligned and securely heat sealed to supporting members for repeatedly joining and disjoining the members with ease thus providing, for example, an improvement over the fastener disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,152,376.
The foregoing and other objects will become evident from the following summary of the invention, the description of the preferred embodiment, and the attached drawings.